First Aid Requirements for Construction Sites

When working in the construction industry, the safety of all staff must be considered daily. First aid requirements for staff are not something that you should put off, as they are an essential part of creating a healthy, happy working environment. With that in mind, we highly recommend that you try to invest in some understanding of what is needed on a construction site regarding first aid.

Whether you undertake the Emergency First Aid at Work training or go a step further with the First Aid at Work Course, the following rules and regulations should be something that you try to adhere to in your construction firm.

Modern first aid requirements for construction sites

So, the primary requirement that you are expected to adhere to falls in line with the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981. This is an essential part of the process. The appointed person must be able to provide – and stock – an appropriate first aid box with the right kind of supplies for any potential emergency in your workplace.

The person must be on-site at all times; you cannot have your appointed first-aid professional off the construction site when work is being done. You should therefore look to have more than one member of staff trained in first aid via First Aid at Work courses.

What are first aiders expected to do?

If you have less than five people working on-site, the HSE expects you to have one appointed person on-site. For anything from 5-50 people, you would need to have a specialist in First Aid at Work and/or an Emergency First Aider.

However, if you exceed 50 people on the worksite, you need to have at least one person per 50 people to manage first aid. So, if you had a 150-strong workforce, you would need to have three people with first aid expertise on every site at all times.

This is essential, as you need someone who is a specialist in the first aid industry available to help out should a problem take place. They can provide immediate assistance, and relay to the emergency services what help is needed should the problem be beyond the remit of the first aider on-site.

This is why you should never allow first aid regulations to be ignored in your workplace. Having someone on-site with the tools and the technique needed in an accident is instrumental and vital for the long-term health of your workers. If nothing else, this is a legal requirement today, and your business should look to ensure that it has the correct people in place for anything that could go wrong.

The more time you take to handle such issues now, the less time it might take later on down the line to solve the issues at hand. The sooner you take first aid requirements seriously, the quicker you can get things moving forward in a positive way and ensure that everyone on-site is 100% safe from the risk of first aid failures.